Reporting tech issues to rabble IV

Guess what I just read on the front page of Rabble?

"Active Discussions on Babble:"

...

Reporting tech issues to rabble IV posted by Anonymous"

I have just put myself through the needlessly masochistic experience of simply trying to paste a piece of text in an opening post and, once again,

(getting down on my knees here)

can someone post a SIMPLE TESTED HOW-TO GUIDE so each of us doesn't have to come on one of these threads or scroll through a month worth of whining and snappy come-backs in trying to guess how to do it right so that html codes and broken-up lines do not make it look terrible? Or do we have to just skip using the opening post - as most seem to be doing - while a techie somewhere is swearing in turn at us for being so disrespectful?

The only sure solution I have found is to "launder" the text you want to paste, to get rid of the hidden formatting.

When you copy text from an e-mail or a web page it usually contains invisible formatting codes that you don't want - like carriage returns, hotlinks, bolding, and italics.

I copy the original into a new Word document using the Edit>Paste Special>Unformatted text sequence. Then Copy the text again from the Word document into the tiny, undersized, Comment box on babble.

Sometimes that doesn't get rid of all the nasty formatting, and a second "laundry" step is required. To do this, I copy the text from Word into Notepad and then from Notepad into the tiny, undersized Comment box on babble.

We didn't have to do shit like this on the old babble, because the box where you composed your message would automatically strip all formatting from pasted text, and turn it into pure ASCII text. Most forum software does likewise. There is no reason why the new babble couldn't be made to do this as well.

Up off your knees, now. 

When you switch between rich text mode and html mode, your text get's messed up. Pretty frustrating

I've been getting this error message this morning:

 Unable to connect to database server

If you still have to install Drupal, proceed to the installation page.

If you have already finished installing Drupal, this either means that the username and password information in your settings.php file is incorrect or that we can't connect to the MySQL database server. This could mean your hosting provider's database server is down.

The MySQL error was: Too many connections.

I get that one too, sometimes.

I think it means there are more than 6 babblers online at the same time.

When I'm editing one of my posts, the page suddenly jumps all over the place - happens every time.

Another website about to convert to Drupal:

I wish them good luck!

You can accomplish the same thing without using Word or Notepad:

1. Finish composing your whole post, quotes and pastes and all. Before hitting "Post comment":

2. Select the entire text in the box (using CTRL-A if you're in Windows).

3. Right-click and "Cut" the whole text. Your edit box should be empty now.

4. Click on the icon.

5. Click inside the new box that appears, and go CTRL-V (i.e., paste).

6. Click on "INSERT".

You should now have a "clean" post free of all original formatting, ready to post.

Has anyone else noted this line in Drupal's homepage source code?

<!-- Note: does not validate. We would like it to, but that would mean reduced user experience for the majority of our visitors. -->

These guys are playing free and loose with the code. That will inevitably cause trouble.

Sorry, people, but I keep going back to the code. When the code is full of errors, those who browse the web pages are going to run into problems. Guaranteed.

Did rabble ever download the Advanced Forum module of Drupal? Otherwise, babble is merely operating off of the basic Drupal forum module, and it would be no wonder that the functionality is not like other forums.

Many Rabble articles have corresponding Babble threads where they are discussed.

Why doesn't Rabble post a link to the corresponding Babble thread on the page where the article appears?

How do you delete a post?

M. Spector, they are going to do that - we originally had it on the new rabble but it was glitchy.

ceti, you can't delete your posts.

Report: the techno-fixing climate change thread, EJ section, went all boldface after post #69. (Yes, 69. Maybe the system got overloaded, with so much going on.)

http://www.rabble.ca/babble/environmental-justice/plan-b-techno-fixing-c... [18]

 ____________________________________________________________

http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/questions_and_answers/faq7/faq7.h... [19]

I can't underline.  When I highlight and press the Underline button it underlines the word in the box but not on the actual posted item.

When I quote my post you see it again in the text box but not in either posts.

Test test test yeah! It works now, thanks Michelle just have to use th [ with a u and a ] in it oh and don't forget the /u part too

I'm not sure this is so much a technical problem, but perhaps more to do with style. 

I thought it was just a matter of getting used to it, but I find after all this time it is still annoying me, and I really think it hurts the whole babble experience.

The thread tittles shown on the list are too short.   For all the interest they inspire, we might as well switch to some alpha-numeric system.

Really.  It's making this a rather dull place.

Which list?

All the lists I use show the thread titles in full.

Only on the Babble frontpage so far as I know, it also spoils the old thread-titles game, sticking "by" in everywhere...

Is TAT what you are talking aboot, Tommy? Do you not see them in full, like this one?

Asian Human Rights Commission: SRI LANKA: The Exhibitionism of Necrophilia: The Subhuman in the Sinhala-Buddhist Psyche

He's probably talking about the front page.

http://www.rabble.ca/babble 

Hey thats my line jas!

Uggh! Ya either that front page goes, or I do.

Yes, the front page. I guess it's just the way I've always visited babble. I've never actually used the Today's Active Topics feature, though I will use my recent post feature so I can more quickly find previous posts to keep track of a thread, and answer almost anyone if they address what I wrote.

Maybe I'll do the TAT thingy.

Um.... was I the only person looking at the front page....? 

I guess using the TAT is better.  Seems I missed out on the whole fellatio thread, which really suuuhhhwas unfortunate.

Do links show up on other reader's screen, underlined and in blue?  Generally, a link seems to be simply a slightly different shade of black/gray, relative to other text.

This is true whether I'm using my PC at work or my Mac at home (using both Safari and Firefox with my Mac). 

_______________________________________

Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!

No Sven, it's the same for everyone. The only links that are showing up blue and underlined are the ones that posters have coded manually to do so.

What is the code for colouring text?  

Figured it out from one of Spector's posts.

blue

purple

dark blue

red

light blue

yellow

lavender

maroon, even

violet

light green

dark green

Just want to see it on the grey background :

blue

purple

dark blue

red

light blue

yellow

lavender

maroon, even

violet

light green

dark green

pink!  

Hey, good news!  Apparently links on babble are going to be red!  Woo hoo!  I'm not sure exactly when the change will take effect, but I'm assuming very soon. 

Sorry, I'm really excited about this. :D 

I've been using red links for weeks, just as our TAT and similar pages already do. Here is how it's done:

Here is an example of a link pointing to "Unionbook", a social networking site for trade unionists.

And here is how it was coded (inserting spaces to make the coding visible):

 [ url=http: //www.unionbook.org/][ color=red]Here is an example of a link pointing to "Unionbook", a social networking site for trade unionists.[/ color][/ url]

Of course, you can insert any other colour that tickles your fancy.

New babble is working pretty good for me, and I especially like the absence of the dreaded TAT rollover every morning.

Is there a way to embed youtube or other videos on babble yet? If not, is this on the radar of these elusive 'tech people'?

It would be nice to get that feature back, which was so easy on the old babble

You can simply post the link to a video or youtube, just describe what it is and interested parties can click on it.

Boom Boom: Thats true but this isn't a thread for discussing ways that we can adapt to the new babble and develop habits to address its faillings; this thread is about how babble's new software can help us babblers (rather than the reverse). Afterall this is a feature which worked perfectly on the old babble!

Just trying to be helpful.

Actually, I got a number of complaints on the old babble about exactly that - embedded YouTube videos - because it made the pages very slow to load and crashed some people's browsers.  So I'm not sure that I'd make embedded YouTube videos a priority - perhaps it would be best to simply link to them.

test

I'm on slow dialup at home, so anything that adds complexity will take longer for my computer to download. I'm enjoying high speed wireless internet at the motel (hospital visit) and wish I had this at home, but high speed is expensive where I live (on a disability allowance).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g

If only ONE thing is done with the new babble,  It should be making links a different colour automatically. How hard could this possibly be, and how long could it possibly take to fix this?

__________________________________

One struggle, many fronts.

Here's something that would be helpful (I don't think it already exists): A thread in which Rabble could describe actual progress in changes to the software (e.g., announce when XYZ has occurred).   At least people would know that something is being done (and what that "something" is).

As it stands, it seems like nothing is happening (when, in fact, something may be occurring).

_______________________________________

Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!

Well, that would be a fair explanation, but rabble on the whole is more complicated and requires more bandwidth than the old rabble, so it can hardly be said that concern for dial-up is an issue. Embedding media easily is standard for message boards, blogs and the like. Without it, rabble comes off not as sympathetic to dial-up (an absurdity, considering the other updates) but crude and out of touch.

That said, I agree that it is a small thing, and not a high priority, but it shoudl definitely be implemented eventually, before the next upgrade...

If theres still a concern for dialup I haven't noticed it  much since the relaunch either; if actual content which contributes to our discussions is too much of a burden to load, whats the idea with the ads? They add nothing to the site, except loading time... and if they help raise money, it would appear that its not being spent on Babble anyway... I personally do not use or care for Rabble (where I assume the money is going), so I'm not in favor of choosing ads over content if we are rationing our bandwidth for the dialup folks (for whom I do have the utmost sympathy). If the ads are supposedly helping pay for Babble then lets do as Sven suggested and see some evidence of improvement around here.

rabble.ca is not facebook friendly. I just tried to post a link to a rabble.ca article and instead of posting a picture and snippet from the article all I get is a box that says rabble.ca without the name of the article or any hint of what it's about.

Not very useful. Same thing happens if I try to use the "share" box on the article page. 

So far, I can insert an emoticon but cannot format a link nor image.  The pop-up boxes appear but nothing happens after I insert the information.  I remembered how to put the image manually but I might need help with manual url code.

Test

Another site I post on will ask me to allow scripted windows for this type of formatting.  Anybody know the setting that may be affecting it?

edit:  OK, got the manual url figured out too but I hope to solve the problem still.

The pop-up box for inserting links sucks.  It's worth than that, actually, because it doesn't format your link.

Try using this: CNN.  Click on "Quote" under my post and you'll get the code for inserting a link with an underline and blue text.

Yeah, it's manual, but that's the best I've seen (props to M. Spector for explaning that).

_______________________________________

Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!

Thanks Sven.  I'm going to your other thread.

Back to aka's problem.  Any help?

Is there a way of getting an 'old rabble' thread?

I have the url even [about a year old], but it doesn't do anything.

Is there a way of getting an 'old rabble' thread?

I have the url even [about a year old], but it doesn't do anything.

From what I can tell, the vast majority of historical posts are...forever lost.

_______________________________________

Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!

Tech issue # 863:

Why is it that when I mouse over the hotlink in this post the correct linked URL appears in a box near my cursor, but when I click on the hotlink I am taken not to that URL but to a fictitious URL on the rabble website, generating this error message: The page you requested is no longer here [error 404], which does not in fact even begin to correctly describe the error that has occurred??  

M. Spector, that link works for me. No url appears when I mouse over the link, but I can get to the correct page when I click on the hotlink. I'm using firefox, btw.

M. Spector, I report the same experience as Left Turn. But I believe your question emanates from this post, does it not? There, I indeed get a little text box with the correct link when I hover my cursor, but clicking on it takes me to an error page as you indicated.

The problem is apparent when looking at the source code for the hyperlink (I've added spaces near the start and finish to make it readable):

But how Webgear (or rather, how the babble software) created that screwed-up link is a mystery to me.

The link worked for me, M. Spector.

Maybe after you posted it, the crack IT team got all over the problem and resolved it? 

_______________________________________

Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!

It still doesn't work for me. There's no way the crack(ed) IT team sprang into action to correct the problem.

I get the same thing with both Firefox (admittedly an old version) and with Internet Explorer. Left clicking on that link takes me to http://rabble.ca/Afghan%20villager%20sentenced%20to%20death%20for%20'wrong%20information'%20which%20caused%20bombing%20tragedy which generates an error page.

I'm sure it wasn't Webgear's doing. 

BTW: the faulty link I'm referring to does not appear in my previous post. The link in my post takes you to the thread post by Webgear that contains the faulty link.

Why is Ronak Ghorbani in my menu? I'm sure she's a very nice person but until a moment ago I don't think I was aware of her existence. Then I happened to glance at the Your Menu section on my right and suddenly this link is on the list between "my rabble" and "Create content."

No offense intended, Ronak, whoever you are.

That certainly got fixed quickly.

Yeah, I sent a note to the editorial list.  I was just coming back to this thread to let you know I'd done so, and then discovered that it was already fixed!

I think there's a tricky thing when we add content to the site, that it's easy to add it to the side list for everyone for some reason.  (I don't know exactly, because I don't add content to any part of the site except babble.)  Something about checking or unchecking a box before submitting or whatever.  Anyhow, please feel free to let us know when that happens - it's very easily fixed!

An update on usernames being truncated - I've just been told that this will not be changed, because it affects the layout of other areas of the site if we lengthen it past 20 characters.  So, unfortunately, that means that anyone with a username of more than 20 characters will have it cut off.

If anyone would like to change their usernames, let me know and I'll do that for you.  Sorry about that.  I'm pretty attached to a couple of the longer usernames (like Lard Tunderin' Jesus), so I'm sorry that this can't be changed.

I'd like to change my username to Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle- dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nurnburger-bratwustle-gernspurten-mitz-weimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shonedanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm, please!

P.S. Yay!  Lard Tunderin had 21 characters in his name, so I just took out the ' in Tunderin' and it worked, he's no longer truncated! 

So if any of you with more than 20 characters have a way you'd like to modify your username back to 20, let me know and I'll change it asap.

I'll get right on that, M. Spector. :D

No frakken way, I sent you an email requesting that very name on March 2, so seniority rules.

I'm thinking Hugh Topian might be a good moniker change for Sven.  It's kinda closer to the babble vibe!! 

_______________________________________

Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!

You don't get to change your name, Sven.  Unless you send me money, of course.  Then we'll talk. :D

How much coin, exactly, are we talkin' about?

_______________________________________

Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!

This thread and this thread [76] show two cases of something that happened to me once, I tried to start a thread with the first two or three words as a link and when it posted the text did not print.

Post#3 (this one the link is defenetly first) in the former thread and post 20 and 21 (my guess that livewire put it first) in the latter thread above are the examples and this one may be the third (it doesn't seem to happen with all my posts)

I fixed it by deleting the link that was in the post as it wasn't uber important.

ETA: looks like this one worked so it seems like it truely is a glitch in the matrix.

ETA More: Found another thread where the opening post looks like it started with a link (it won't let me go over any of the links so I can't say for sure) but there are links and it disappeared

http://rabble.ca/babble/labour-and-consumption/will-unite-here-split-open-rifts-clc [77]

http://rabble.ca/babble/aboriginal-issues-and-culture/injunction-hearing-six-nations

Let's see if doing the link this way does it.......

ETA: nope, really is a glitch in the matrix

One more note - when I quoted IanM's post it was again blank (as when Papal Bull tried to do it) but when I edited out all of the links (I tried just taking out the first one and it still was not showing so I edited out the second and only other link) and, voila it appeared!

http://rabble.ca/babble/national-news/military-may-patrol-bar-zone-barrie

Guess the glich in the matrix has something to do with links!

Rabble's super duper druper software doesn't even know when daylight saving time begins.

.

.

Note to Refuge: the problem you describe is caused by the length of the post. There is now a limit to the length of a post that can be displayed on babble. Nobody knows what that limit is, but this new feature of babble was announced here.

Drupal certainly doesn't have a max limit on post size, so if there's a problem with large posts then it's because someone somewhere made the decision that they wanted t limit the post size.

It might also have blank posts for long posts too, but my problem was different. 

When I deleted links it was fine.  I even added two sentences to the post after I deleted the link.  It wasn't the fact that the post was shorter when I deleted the link because the post was actually longer than when the link was in the post.  When I previewed it with the link it disapeared, when I previewed it without the link it appeared.  When I added two sentences to it it still appeared.

Looks like there might be two glitches in the Matrix!

Further to the above post I was just in this forum:

http://rabble.ca/babble/anti-racism-news-and-initiatives/are-you-jew-hater-based-toronto-sun-column-lorrie-goldstein-0

and when I reposted the absentee article (again adding text that made the post longer) while erasing the link to the article and the mail to link for the author it posted in it's entirety but when I tried to just repost it it would not appear until I took out the links at the begining of the article but links at the end (including my Tech link which made the post disapear when I put it in the first line but not in the last) were fine.

Note: When Maysie cut the article in two it also reposted fine so it seems as if the two glitches in the Matrix are somehow related.

Hope this helps tech guys!

Refuge, thanks for that experiment. I tried it too just now, then deleted my post so that thread doesn't get too ridiculous. Not that it isn't already, content-wise.

I had assumed it was the length. And to make the text show up I also had to disengage not just the imbedded link (the "straight" link is fine) but as much of the formatting as possible (like all/most of the italics). The first time I tried to post, without having done all that, my post was blank as well, even though on edit I could see the text in the edit box. Odd. 

oh, I didn't try unlinking, I just erased the whole sentence(s). 

It just assures me that somewhere, someone named Neo is seeing these glitches and will soon wake up and learn how to save us all!

A few times now I've found myself logged out of babble when I disconnect from the internet, and have to log on again. I wonder what's causing that? This never happened with the old babble.

Never happened to me. Your cookie settings, maybe? or your password manager? Have you changed browsers recently?

I haven't changed any of these things, other than upgrading to IE7 (from IE6) two years ago.

I keep getting this message when I post:

"Account Type update was unsuccessful."

What's going on with that? 

Did you remember to check the "Remember me" box when you logged on again?

Yes, always.

ETA: the problem hasn't occurred today.

ETA: two days later, no sign of the problem. Guess it was a glitch somewhere.

Tech issue No. 865

Not sure if this has already been talked about but sometimes bold or italic gets turned on and then can't get turned off. It will even bold the "Your Menu" right-hand sidebar. Weird. 

A few times I've gone in and tried to turn it off, and it hasn't worked. I wonder if complete reformatting, using the clipboard T icon is the only way to fix it. 

Here's the example that reminded me of this phenomenon. The bold comes right near the end of the thread. 

http://www.rabble.ca/babble/central-canada/what-does-ondp-say-people-who-want-public-funding-muslim-schools 

I don't see the problem in my browser, Maysie.

I tried to use the strikeout function, and while it showed up in the field you type your post into, it didn't show in the actual post. Solutions?